There have been a variety of studies published in recent years showing that vegan and vegetarian diets produce a lower carbon footprint than omnivore or carnivore diets. Raw vegans further reduce their dietary footprint by greatly reducing the energy used to prepare foods. But what about the locavore movement and efforts to source food as close to home as possible?

Live Superfoods, a purveyor of raw, organic, vegan foods and nutritional supplements, recognized that their healthy diet options often came from distant lands, thus increasing the carbon footprint due to packaging materials and shipping emissions. In order to reduce these emissions, Live Superfoods took several steps to reuse and recycle shipping cartons and packing materials wherever possible, use recycled paper tape for sealing shipments and recyclable fill materials instead of bubble wrap and Styrofoam peanuts. Then, to neutralize the remaining shipping emissions, Live Superfoods joined the CarbonFree® Business Partnership program four years ago. The CarbonFree® Partner program makes it simple and affordable for Live Superfoods to mitigate its remaining operational emissions, including all shipping emissions and all employee commuting emissions, on an annual basis.

Live Superfoods purchases enough carbon offsets from Carbonfund.org to offset the shipment of products not only from their warehouse to their customers, but also from their global suppliers to the distribution warehouse. Consequently, their products have a lower carbon footprint than what most locavores consider local.

"As individuals, we're extremely excited about the locavore movement. But since Live Superfoods specializes in superfoods that are typically grown in exotic places, our company hasn't been able to participate,” explains Tom Burke, CEO of Live Superfoods. “Now, by purchasing carbon offsets from Carbonfund.org, we're able to import and deliver our foods to the ultimate consumer carbon-free. Our products now have a smaller carbon footprint than foods delivered by farmers to the local farmers' market!"

Live Superfoods also participates in their power company’s Blue SkySM Renewable Energy program, which supports a blend of 100% Pacific Northwest renewable resources from Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. This initiative further neutralizes Live Superfoods’ annual operational emissions, and together with the CarbonFree® Business Partnership, underscores Live Superfoods’ leadership position as a truly sustainable provider of healthy raw vegan foods, supplements and personal care products.